Editorial: A call for justice for James Foley

Monday

Feb 12, 2018 at 4:36 PMFeb 12, 2018 at 4:51 PM

We join the parents of slain journalist James Foley in their call for justice after U.S. officials recently confirmed the U.S.-backed capture of two Britons who were part of a notorious Islamic State cell that tortured and beheaded Foley and more than two dozen other hostages.

Foley, who grew up in Rochester, was kidnapped in 2012, and killed in August 2014.

U.S. officials have confirmed that suspected terrorists El Shafee Elsheikh and Alexanda Amon Kotey, who grew up in London before traveling to the Middle East, were captured in early January in eastern Syria. They are alleged to have been part of the four-man IS cell dubbed "The Beatles" because of their British accents. That cell captured, tortured and beheaded more than two dozen hostages, including American journalists Foley and Steven Sotloff, and American aid worker Peter Kassig.

Foley's father, John, called for a trial for the two captured terrorists and life imprisonment if they are found guilty. He did not want those who killed his son to be killed, fearing it would make them heroes in the eyes of their twisted followers.

"The death penalty would make them martyrs, which is what they would want, so I would prefer that they spend the rest of their lives in jail," John Foley said.

We join John Foley in his call for a higher, civilized form of justice. Anything less than that would have us be part of the same savagery the terrorists displayed in the public and repulsive death scenes they recorded as propaganda for their cause.

It is so difficult not to wish the same violent deaths on these two men, who obviously have so little respect for human life and dignity, and the teachings of the world's great religions, including Islam. But to descend to the depths to which they descended would only strip us of our humanity and inflame the zealots who believe that murder is the way to eternal life.

It would have felt so much better had these two met the same fate as Mohammed Emwazi, their fellow terrorist who is actually believed to have been the man to wield the weapon that killed Foley while others filmed it. Emwazi, who was known as "Jihadi John," died in November 2015, while sitting in a car in Raqqa, Syria. The car and its four occupants were blown up by a Hellfire missile dropped from a height of 10,000 feet from an armed predator drone operated by military personnel at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada.

Though easier, cleaner and more immediately satisfying in our weakness for revenge, in truth, death by missile isn't justice. A trial in which all sides must argue in front of a world audience is the way to honor Foley's memory and the lives of other hostages lost to the hatred that is religious fanaticism.

James Foley's father, who could not be blamed if he had called for the deaths of those who murdered his son, believes that a trial is the best avenue to justice. "Everybody needs to be responsible for their actions, and we as a family and as a country have a need for justice," he said.

But, how such a trial would take place and where the terrorists would serve life sentences is already dividing us.

French journalist Nicolas Henin, who was held by the IS cell for 10 months, said he wants justice. Henin has called for a trial in the UK and not sending the men to Guantanamo.

Henin told The Associated Press last Friday that there hasn't been a single trial in Guantanamo for 16 years, and that controversial prison was actually one of the reasons his tormentors took part in their jihad brand of extremism. "So if we perpetrate this kind of atrocity, we are not helping our quest for justice," Henin said.

Disagreement among U.S. policymakers is also clouding the call for justice. The Washington Post reported Friday that the Trump administration is divided over how to handle the two captured Islamic State militants. Some senior officials, including President Donald Trump’s top counter-terrorism adviser, Thomas P. Bossert, favor sending them to Guantanamo, but others want them brought to the United States for a criminal trial.

Regardless of where the trial is held, these men should be held accountable for their savagery. The world should know the facts of their heinous acts and when the verdict is announced there should be no doubt in anyone's mind that these men were murderers, not martyrs, and deserve whatever punishment they receive.

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